Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Who is Murilo Santana?

As is usually the case, I'm late to the party with some things in the Jiu-Jitsu world. Back in 2012, Santana was winning the Brasileiros (beating another guy who would come onto the scene this year in the Mundials and Copa Podio - Felipe Pena), but I first noticed him in the Abu Dhabi Pro Qualifier up in America's hat (also known as Canada) with his old school, head first, face in crotch fundamental style of stack passing. He's really come to bear in the early part of this year with solid perfomances at black belt in the Mundials. He's also part of a renaissance in the stack pass which is a response to all the wild open guard styles coming to the forefront of sport Jiu-Jitsu as of late.

Here he is very briefly and coming about as close as I've seen many, many high levels guys pass Keenan's guard but Keenan recomposes. This is a great match for watching Murilo's low passing style with pressure versus a flexible and varied guard like Keenan's.